A Day at the MET(s)–New York City (Again)
After a quiet Christmas holiday, the family turmoil began slowly to settle. I read that mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves-Montgomery was giving her final Metropolitan Opera performance in Porgy and Bess during the last weekend of January. I decided to take the opportunity to get out-of-town and witness the performance. This would be the second time I’ve traveled to New York to see the opera/musical (depending on the approach of the musical presentation one used)–previously for the 2012 Broadway production with Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis. I also saw the 2019 production via The Met in HD, so I was really looking forward to seeing it live. I took Amtrak to New York because it’s so hard to drive and park in the city safely that I feel like the Silver Bullet is much better off parked at the train station. I’m no longer used to getting up early enough to make…
Two Major Backtracks–New York and Porgy and Bess Plus Grotto of the Redemption in Iowa (2012)
While looking for the blog post describing my 2012 trip to New York City to see the musical adaptation of Porgy and Bess before it left Broadway, I discovered that I hadn’t actually written a post. Then, I realized that I was also missing a post for the visit my dearly departed Momma and I made to the Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. At this point–nearly thirteen years later–my recollection is incomplete, but I’ll try as best as I can to explain what led to the pictures I captured. Unfortunately, the camera I used for the photos did not record GPS locations, so I found general GPS locations and added that information so that maps could be generated on my Piwigo pages. The Grotto of the Redemption, June 30 My mother, Cora Jones, flew out to Iowa for her second visit in June of…
April and May Travel Update
I’m hoping for a very active travel summer in 2025. This has been made easier by an award I recently received. The Music Library Association (MLA) bestowed its 2025 Vincent H. Duckles Award–given for the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music–for my second book, Recorded Solo Concert Spirituals, 1916-2022. With their monetary award, I was able to fully prep the Silver Bullet for distance travel, pay for registration and hotel for the upcoming Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and have funds left to register for next year’s MLA conference. The fun is scheduled to begin with a full day in Baltimore consisting of a road tour of the city, my second visit to the National Aquarium, and a dinner cruise that evening. This is contingent on my full recovery from whatever bug I brought back (in addition to the Kong-sized shot glass and…
New York City: Boat Tour, Empire State and Chanticleer, Too
There are a variety of performers on my “gotta hear them live” bucket list. The men’s vocal ensemble, Chanticleer, is on that list. When I saw an ad on Facebook that they were giving a concert, I immediately purchased a ticket. Now, the only problem was I didn’t look to see where they were performing until after I bought the non-refundable ticket. See, the concert was set to take place in New York City. I had a choice: I could either write off the ticket, or I make my way to New York. It was actually a pretty short debate after I concluded that I could take a short Amtrak trip there and make a day of it. As the day approached, I checked the weather forecast and saw that, while that Thursday was set to only reach the 50s, there was no rain forecast. I tried to dress in…
Catching Up and Looking Ahead
In the months since I last posted, I made my move from Iowa to Maryland, or the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia). It was wonderful to spend my first Thanksgiving in years with my family. It was also nearly as wonderful to miss the 20 inches of snow that fell in Iowa and below zero temperatures they experienced in January of 2024. Here, we did get a couple of inches a few nights when the temps dropped to the upper teens. I was fortunate to find a two-bedroom apartment in an independent living senior residence. The rent is outrageous, but folks keep telling me that it’s quite reasonable for the DMV. I try to tell myself that each month as I pay the rent, but it isn’t working. Anyway,… As busy as I’ve been trying to organize things from the move–the office is still a mass of boxes, I have gotten some travel…